Queens Club
by ForASecondThereWe'dWon
Summary: What's a cause without a rebel? What's a fight without someone to hit? *Fight Club AU*


**Author's Note:**

Based on the Tumblr prompts: 12. "Are you going to eye-fuck me all night or are you going to do something about it?" and 43. "The things that I want to do to you, baby."

* * *

Warped is how it feels to live in a progressive city within a conservative country. MJ marches and rallies and volunteers her time with organizations whose goals she believes in. She looks around at these events and sees a youthful, diverse crowd hungry for equal pay, thirsty for renewable energy initiatives. She smiles, handing donated school supplies to underprivileged kids, donated canned goods to Queens's homeless, donated fuck-yous from the disgustingly, ceaselessly rich to the people their hoarded wealth keeps poor. MJ wants to do more, so she does it, and things don't change. Things. Don't. Change.

She wants to pick a fight.

It's comin' on winter―an even bleaker time than the manic-depressive Christmas Joni Mitchell alluded to―and the impact of the latest article MJ's submitted to an online zine that always takes her pieces feels like it'll last about as long as the first ashy snowfall. _Where's the passion_, she wanted them to ask. Maybe they could grab her by her shoulders and shake until her neck snaps while they're at it. Disillusionment wasn't supposed to come this soon for the kid who wore Jeanne d'Arc Ts in high school. The 'Girl Most Likely' of teen revolution.

The city's greyer this year, she'd swear to it. Wishy-washy shadows and sidewalks for sleepwalkers. Getting from work to home? Nightmarish, but in, like, a boring way. The tiny, chilly apartment MJ shares with some woman who seems to keep opposite hours isn't enough to revive her. At least the drama of scratching 'DO NOT RESUSCITATE' into her bedroom door is something to contemplate on the walk. Tomato soup for dinner, just to see the colour orange.

Not everyone she knows falls into the two categories of 'sparky do-gooder' and 'veritable stranger' like she'd thought. Someone is interesting. Someone has felt her clenched jaw and understood her cravings. MJ flips over the card she found shoved beneath the apartment's front door, but the back is blank. She peruses the front again, eyes down while she lifts her dinner and gulps the last of the soup directly from the bowl. It sloshes over her upper lip, so she licks it off, feeling... Feeling. That's enough.

The card says, 'Fight Club.' It provides a date and time, a familiar street address.

She's neutral about slipping inside Midtown Tech after midnight. Whoever did the breaking in left the rear custodial door open―the one that exits into a closet-room of buckets and rolls of rough brown paper towel. There's no sign, not that MJ had been expecting one. It isn't parent teacher night or the heavily-postered orientation day she attended when she started college. The lights aren't on in the hall and when she sniffs hard (adjusting to the dry air), the sound is somehow too close. She has to get out of her own body.

What she'd pictured after the anonymous invite was a gathering in someplace a little grittier than the gym. Newly refloored, by the looks of it. She could rave about the skewed divide of school funds that favours athletics, the physical over the mental, even in a specialized tech school, but she isn't here to champion the arts.

The things MJ might need tonight could be anything; she's filled a decrepit duffle with a water bottle, towel, and two-thirds-empty box of band-aids. It sags pathetically and she chucks it against the wall to join the dozen people―mostly men―clumped together near the fold-away bleachers.

"'Sup." She nods to the closest person.

How long have they been doing this? Is she the only new recruit tonight? When did it begin? Why use the gym at Midtown Tech? Who found her and how? The only thing she doesn't wonder is what the point is. He doesn't answer any of the questions in MJ's head and normally she doesn't like that―curiouser and skepticaler by nature―but the conviction in his powerful-looking shoulders and grounded posture is something she's never seen before. The phrase is bullshit, except the air does change when he moves through the circle they've become without her noticing. Suddenly, MJ cares about presenting herself like she's supposed to be here.

There are rules, blah, blah, blah, and his name is Spider-Man.

The spectacle engages her adrenaline; she has to remind herself that neither of the men swinging furious amateur punches is going to come for her. It's the first match of the night and watching is part of what Figh―is what _this_ is about. The noise of a nose breaking is something MJ knows now. The smear of freshly-escaped blood across both men's knuckles is surprisingly orange. Briefly, remembering her soup, she feels a nauseated surge in her stomach.

This "Spider-Man" dude is physical. He hasn't fought yet, but he pushes the fighters, grabs their arms and shoves them together, slaps them on the back and shrieks praise in their ears. He yanks his shirt off and when the fighters collide with him, they leave streaks from superficial wounds on his chest. Never his back, because he's always facing them. His eyes are passionate. It's a lot, when they land on MJ.

Two more fights and he looks at her every time he turns his head. He still hasn't fought, but he's jostled the crowd and the fighters enough to put a shine on his skin. When he pushes his curly brown hair off his forehead, it clings for a moment before flopping back exactly where it was. She smells him when he brushes by in front of her.

The fighters are not 'gladiators' because they fight for themselves, not for the approval of any authority. MJ can't see how they can ignore the clear authority of the Club's founder. She doesn't bring it up.

Number four's starting up and the guy beside her has an eye swelling shut when the shock of the evening finally numbs in her mind and she begins to get angry. All those tiny god_fucking_damn backpacks for kids who are statistically less likely to reach post-secondary because of their socioeconomic backgrounds. MJ could swear she's handed out a thousand. And the politicians? And the rich? _And the rich_? Spider-Man slides by at her back, knocking into her and she whips her head around to stare while he stares right on back, moving away around the ring of Last Resorters.

Across from her―a trio beating the shit out of each other in between (it isn't exactly the fish tank meet-cute of _Romeo + Juliet_)―Spider-Man stares, gaze so forceful it's like he thinks he can yank her over there, make her step into danger like walking into traffic or off the edge of a cliff. He grins.

She shoulders through the others, circling. The action is deliberate and no one gets pissed, no one scoffs or swears or flips her off. The last person standing there between her and her objective MJ bodily propels into the fight. And she's looking a little lower than level to lock eyes with Spider-Man. He crosses his arms, she grinds her teeth.

"Are you going to eye-fuck me all night," MJ demands, "or are you going to do something about it?"

When he starts to laugh, voices roaring up around them after a wretched pop that could've been a shoulder, a finger, or a cheekbone (she's still learning the chords for the music of injury), she slaps him hard across the face. He does react, head swinging sideways on her follow-through, but he smiles at her again.

"Never the flat of the hand," Spider-Man instructs, leaning towards her. "But we'll train you out of that. See, what you want... what you want is a nice closed fist."

He makes one around her ponytail, arm shooting out before she has a chance to stop him―if she had any idea how to do that―and drags her by it, sideways into the combat space.

"MOVE YOUR ASSES," he orders, kicking a guy in the knee who then has to limp to the observers. "You picked the match," he says to her, winding MJ's hair around his fist to heighten the tug on her scalp, "so fight me."

Abruptly, he frees her hair and she hurls her shoulder into his chest.

"You fucking started it, bitch."

MJ never says that word, not as an endearment for friends (like she has a lot of those) or to reclaim control of a term used to harass women. Holding it in her mouth has always made her sick. Guess she just figuratively barfed on Spider-Man.

He staggers, then pushes her back. MJ's feet are completely wrong and she falls on her ass.

"Up," he says, raising his fists in front of his chin, arms flexing.

Her sneaker squeaks―she hopes it leaves a scuff―and somebody's damp palm is pressing between her shoulder blades to steady her to her feet.

He doesn't direct her with his words anymore after that, although MJ falls again and again. Looks like she'll be finding out tomorrow if you can bruise your ass. Instead, he'll tap her shoulder to make her lower it, grip her elbow to tuck it closer to her ribs. She knows this muscular guy isn't hitting her full-strength, but it doesn't offend her. A trip to the hospital isn't in her plans for the near-future and he probably doesn't want to whittle down his group. If anything, it's likely spreading. Hence her invitation.

Blood has run from her lip to her chin by the time they unspokenly end their fight, and her stomach hurts from the multiple times Spider-Man caught MJ straight-on before she figured out she should turn to the side to present a smaller target. For now, he stands next to her and performs fifth-rate doctoring: he wipes the blood away with his thumb.

Watching other fights, MJ hadn't understood how two people who'd just been attacking each other could then stand together like pals, comparing bruises as they bloomed. But her anger has curled up to rest and Spider-Man's presence, his strength, makes her press her arm into his. She looks him up and down and though he studies the current fight, she's sure he's aware of her gaze. His stance is good considering she kneed him in the nuts.

"Did you get it all out?" he asks without turning to look at her.

MJ rolls her shoulders.

"For now. You?"

Spider-Man snorts a laugh.

"The things that I want to do to you, baby."

It sort of comes across like a threat of violence, considering all they have just done to each other, but she happens to drop her gaze and see the front of his jeans is looking as swollen as that other poor bastard's eye. The jeans are slouching on his hips as it is. MJ can see herself taking them off. She can see herself punching his cheek instead of slapping it this time. She can see herself doing several things now that she's discovered her _self_ is a self that can challenge a man to a fistfight and do damage. It feels suddenly female, drippingly female, to have stared down this shirtless madman with the anarchic, archaic hobby and introduced his groin to her knee. The partial nudity, the sweating, the concentrated eye contact―obviously, the boner. What's _not_ erotic about this?

"Come and fucking get it then," she tells him, striding through the circle and nudging a winded woman aside, headed for the girls' locker room off the gym.

Spider-Man isn't following her. MJ is leading him.

She bangs the swinging door open and it doesn't have time to shut before he slips inside behind her. Turning her head quickly, she wonders about kissing and decides against it. She doesn't want this man in her face―just in her cunt.

His jeans seem to have dropped even lower; she can see the taut white band of his underwear and a couple inches of cotton below the elastic.

"I'm asking," Spider-Man says with an earnest yet heated gaze. "I don't out there, but here... I'm asking."

Only he doesn't ask anything, not a hint of uptick. Just comes up behind her―with MJ still watching over her shoulder―and scans down the length of her back with his eyes, keeping a foot of air between them. He won't touch her without permission, is what he's saying.

"It's MJ, by the way," she tells him, gripping his forearm and pulling it towards her to make his hand caress up her hip. "I'll be coming to more of these things, so you might as well know."

"Good."

And they both go for the fastenings of their respective bottoms. She thinks she'll beat him, only needing to yank the tie on her sweatpants, but Spider-Man's a quick draw on the button and zipper of his jeans. It can't be more than a second before they're staggering to a wall of lockers, with her shoving her underwear down and him reaching into his and stroking his dick gratuitously before jerking down the front of his boxers.

MJ glances back at how he's taken himself in hand and begins to rub her clit, drawing wetness forward from where their fight a few minutes ago got her going. Her hips jump. Her other hand backhands congealing blood off her lip, then goes to the locker door; she jerks her head to encourage him. She doesn't quit circling and massaging herself as Spider-Man adjusts her hips for angle. There's the prod of his dick as he feels out his destination―like somebody ringing a doorbell. But this guy isn't shy. When he enters her, it's not rough, but it's all the way. One stroke. MJ inhales fast.

She settles into him over the first half-dozen thrusts (the paint on the pale blue metal of the locker is chipping, MJ notices through hazy eyes), sticking her ass out for a shallower angle that brings his cock closer to her g-spot. Her breaths are huffed when he finds it and his hands land suddenly and heavily on her waist, sliding down to knead her hips. She works herself faster, dragging her clit side to side under slippery fingertips. Spider-Man must be able to see her arm moving or, if not that, then definitely feel her clutching at him from the inside. He picks up the pace and she can feel how wet she is, how wet they are together.

MJ moans and shivers, frantically manipulating her clit. It's like her noise gives him another permission―to make sounds of his own. These are gravelly grunts. Not wasteful: one on each of the thrusts he slams into her g-spot. Her arm buckles at the elbow, which is the beginning of the end.

She closes her eyes and rocks her hips backward fiercely, receiving him, receiving him, receiving him. Filling herself up. She will be unbearably full. She will be a nation unto herself. She will be... hitting a pharmacy on the way home to buy Plan B. That's fine because everything is tingling. Her thighs are quaking and it's possible that his hands on her hips are what's keeping distance between her and the speckled floor. She can hear the shuffle of his jeans (around his ankles) against her sweatpants (around hers). MJ pictures her fingers rubbing at light speed. Her teeth clench until a gasp forces them and her eyes open and she's pounding her hips down onto Spider-Man's. These are deep, brutal movements, but she and he are fighters.

He climaxes while she still is, so she finds out she can either have orgasms that last for ages or can get off twice if someone's drilling into her g-spot like he should be living in her nightstand and running on batteries she had to buy separately. Whatever he's triggered, it's fantastic and MJ grinds through it for as long as the sensation lasts.

It's a mess and a loss when he pulls out. In the move that surprises her more than everything else she's seen tonight put together, MJ feels him touch his forehead between her shoulder blades. Doesn't stay for more than a few seconds, but she feels weirdly consecrated. When he backs up to hoist his clothes into place, she gives her face a smack. _Shit_―immediate regret and a wince as the pain in her lip pulses. She gets herself redressed and strides to one of the stalls at the far end of the locker room.

Does she buzz by him because she's embarrassed? Nope. She stands tall, it's just that she can only continue to do so for a limited time, until everything he just shot inside her is coating her inner thighs. No thanks.

She pees, grabbing her stomach because those muscles don't like her tensing to urinate after Spider-Man's punches. As she's folding toilet paper in her hand (it's nicer than the stuff she has at her apartment and she adds that to Midtown's offenses, beneath the gym floor), she hears quiet speech. It's him, talking to himself nearby. Memory aid? Post-sex pep talk? MJ is no man's ego-stroker, but if this guy, who comes across as otherwise supremely confident, needs a little reassurance about his prowess, she can honestly praise him on the experience of tonight's fuck.

Preparing to be complimentary but not effusive, MJ flushes and begins to swing the stall door open when she spots Spider-Man with his hands braced on one of the sinks, leaning his face close to the mirror. The red mark on his cheek could've been a bruise if she knew how to throw a harder punch. He's continuing to speak softly and she stares at the bunched muscles of his back, his tight upper arms. Would she do it again (with a condom)? _Yes_.

"Peter, be patient," he's coaching himself, loud enough for her to hear now. "There's a plan. The Club will scale so fucking beautifully once everything's ready."

_"So your real name's Peter,"_ MJ's about to confirm, when the man, eyes still locked on his reflection, says five more words.

"Ok, Spider-Man. I trust you."

Fuck.


End file.
